How to start a recognition of prior learning file this week

Start with a job, not with the training package

Most people freeze because a certificate looks like a book. A unit of competency is a book. Your evidence is a job. Open the portfolio, choose the national code you are actually working towards, and add the last job as evidence you can still picture. Certificate III in Plumbing is CPC32420. The code for your trade is on the National Training Register if you are unsure. The portfolio links to that page. It does not replace it.

Name three things in the first note: where the work was, when it was, and what you did with your own hands. “Bathroom reno” maps to nothing useful. “Set a tempering valve at Hastings Street, 12 March, outlet read 48 degrees, licensed plumber walked it” maps to a specific element. The gap that remains is then a sentence, not a mood.

What to put in the folder in the first hour

A photo of the work before it is covered up. A voice note if you are still on site and your hands are dirty. A letter or a report if a supervisor already wrote one. You do not need all of them for the first piece. You need one piece that is yours.

Leave out tax file numbers, licence cards, client medical papers, and anyone’s face that is not required to show the work. Crop the letterbox number if the photo is of a private house and the address is already in the note. The privacy policy on this site says the same thing at more length, because an portfolio is still personal information.

1. Create your own login. Do not use your boss’s.
2. Choose Candidate and the qualification code.
3. If your employer sent an invite, enter it. They see progress. They do not become your assessor.
4. Drop one real job. Confirm the links that are actually your work. Reject the ones that are not.
5. Open the unit that is still a gap and use Add the evidence. That fills the note box. Assign this gap is not your button.

What the portfolio will not do for you

It will not issue CPC32420, or any other code. A registered training organisation assesses recognition of prior learning under the Standards for RTOs. ASQA regulates those providers. RPL prepares the portfolio so that conversation is about the work, not about a camera roll.

It will not turn the portfolio into a contractor licence. Licensing is a state or territory decision. In Queensland that is the QBCC. In New South Wales it is Fair Trading. In Victoria it is the VBA. The portfolio links to the regulator for the state you chose. Handing a client a printed pack and calling it a licence is misleading under the Australian Consumer Law, and the pack says it is not a licence for that reason.

Why start before you book an assessor

Assessors read for a match to the element, for authenticity, for enough of the task, and for currency. A thick folder can still be not yet competent if the membrane is already tiled over and nobody photographed it. Starting the portfolio while you are still on the tools is the advantage. The gap text tells you what to photograph next Thursday, instead of discovering the hole on the day of assessment.

When the portfolio is far enough along, create a share code from People and give it to the assessor. That is a separate login from yours. They can search the portfolio and record competent or not yet. They cannot upload your jobs for you. That split is the point of the product.